Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET) Vice-Chancellor Dr Jawaid H Rizvi has described the university as the most outstanding project sponsored by Aligarh Muslim University Old Boys’ Association (AMUOBA) in 1994 in the domain of engineering education.
“It was really a manifestation of their patriotism and concern for nation building, and the Aligarh Spirit,” he said in an interview. The start, he recalled, was modest with the annual budget of only Rs 17.22 million, which over the time reached the level of Rs 861.50 million in the year 2013-2014.
He said the admission policy of the university was based on the philosophy of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. “We do not believe in restrictions in admission based on caste, creed or domicile. The admissions are given purely on merit and do not have any reservations or quotas,” he added.
Students right from the mountains of the North West of Pakistan to the shores of Sindh and Balochistan are getting benefit from Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology, the vice-chancellor pointed out.
This year, he informed, the university received 4,679 applications for 1600 seats with the result that it could not accommodate even some very good students, who had met the criteria of admission. He said the enrollment in the university had already crossed 6,500 after it started with 222 students in 1994 and has produced more than 11,000 graduates since 1998.
In its first convocation in 1998, 197 students were awarded BS degrees. While at 2014 convocation over 1,300 received their Bachelors and Masters degrees in six disciplines.
Dr Jawaid said knowledge is expanding at tremendous pace and new areas of study in engineering and related fields are emerging. This has given rise to the need for new disciplines in the universities. The introduction of these disciplines is essential to keep pace with mainstream of knowledge and compete in this knowledge-based world. SSUET, he informed, was fully alive to this scenario and added three new disciplines – software engineering, bioinformatics and architecture – this year.
The university presently has nine disciplines in its BS programme, while the MS programme was in six disciplines. While PhD programme is being offered in computer and electronic engineering disciplines for faculty members only. “We take pride in the quality of our labs which meet international standards”.
About SSUET’s library, the vice-chancellor said, it has over 90,000 books. The distinctive role of the library is in the maintenance of a book bank. The book bank provides textbooks to the students for a full semester. This is a special facility introduced by SirSyedUniversity to save students from the expenditure on text books.
Dr Jawaid said the University has a policy, which ensures that capable students are not deprived of education due to weak financial position. The scheme of scholarships and financial assistance provides help to the deserving students, who have financial problems.
In the current budget, an amount of Rs 56.05 million has been allocated for scholarships and financial assistance to the students. Concluding, Dr Jawaid said, the university has continued to make steady progress to achieve its goals during this year.
He paid tributes to the University’s first Chancellor and founder Engr ZA. Nizami who had passed away a few days after last year’s convocation. “We are all missing him today. The new Block-E has been named after the founder of the University as Z A Nizami Block.
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